12 posts tagged “shozu”

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A while back, I posted 5 Great Reasons to Twitter.  As Twitter continues to pick up steam (it's seen especially rapid growth since December), I thought it would be helpful to provide some hints/tips for those who are just getting started with Twitter.

Figuring out who to follow
When you're new to Twitter, it's tough to know who to follow.  If you know a few people on Twitter already, following them is easy.  Discovering new people (or companies) to follow is a bit more of a process. Here are a few tips to get started:

• Find out who your 'real life' friends are following (go into their profiles and click on "following).  Browse the profiles, and follow anyone you think sounds interesting. You can always un-follow them later if you find their Tweets aren't as good as you'd hoped.  As you discover interesting people, see who they follow.  You'll have an interesting tweet stream before you know it.
• You can also search for topics that interest you, using Twitter's search facility.  Follow the people who you think have interesting things to say on the topic, and engage them in conversation (more on having a conversation shortly).
• Once you start following a handful of people and having conversations, you can use 3rd party tools like "Mr.Tweet" which will help you discover followers and recommend people with similar interests follow you.
  

Having a conversation:
The most fun/interesting thing about Twitter is the conversations you have with other users.  Interaction is what makes Twitter engaging/sticky.  So, if you're new to Twitter, don't just post you're up to/ what you find interesting, start a conversation with someone about it.  And, if someone strikes up a conversation with you, write back! 

• Replying (@reply):
• To write back to someone (or target a message visible by everyone to a specific Twitter user), click the arrow under the star on any message you see on Twitter.com or enter the @ symbol in front of a twitter users's handle (i.e. @lisawhelan) before the message you write on twitter (i.e.: @lisawhelan I saw your blog post about Twitter.). 
• Direct Messaging (D@reply):
• To send a direct message to someone that no one besides that user can see, but a D@ before the message you send (i.e.: D@lisawhelan I'll see you at the movie theatre at 8pm.)

Using Twitter on a PC or Mac
You can always go to Twitter.com, but there are more feature-rich sites you can use that plug into Twitter's back-end.  Here are a few that are worth trying:

• Web-based solutions
• hootsuite
• Runs on any standard browser
• Currently in Beta (formerly known as BrightKit)
  
• Features:
• Manage multiple Twitter profiles
• Add multiple editors
• Pre-schedule tweets
• Check stats and analytics from the dashboard
  
• Search Twitter for keyword information
  
• @Reply and Direct Message 
• Itweet.net
• Runs on any standard browser
• Features:
• Built-in auto-refresh, search and hashtags
• View user bio, location, URL inline with tweets
• Watch conversations with "in reply to" links
• NEW! bit.ly URL shortener and TwitPic uploader
• Tweettree
• Runs on any standard browser
• Features:
• Displays your Twitter stream a 'tree-like' format, so that you can see the posts people are replying to in context.
  
• Pulls-in external content from the following sites so that you can see it in your stream, without clicking through each link:
• YouTube
• Flickr
• TwitPic
• FriendFeed
• Seesmic
• Qik
• Lala
• Blip.fm
• and more
• Tweetvisor
• Runs on any standard browser
• Features:
• Manage multiple Twitter accounts
• Get real-time updates about favorite topics, news and tweets
• Groups
• Tagging friends
• Inline video replies
• Software for your Mac or PC
• Thwirl
• Runs on Windows (2000/XP/Vista) and Mac OSX
• Features:
• Thwirl notifies you when new messages arrive
  
• Shortens long URLs  (with bit.ly, snurl, twurl or is.gd)
• Allows you to cross-post updates to your favorite social networks like: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Jaiku, and Ping.fm
• post images to TwitPic
• Makes searching for topics easy throughTwitter Search and TweetScan.  Allows you to save searches.
• automatically finds tweets that mention you (i.e. retweets and other mentions of your @handle)
  
• Lets you record a video on Seesmic and post it to Twitter instantly
• Gives you realtime Seesmic updates using XMPP
• Checks spelling (US English only)
  
• TweetDeck
  
• Adobe Air desktop application currently in Beta
  
• Runs on Max OSX and Microsoft Vista and Windows XP
• Features:
• Split your Tweets into topic or group specific columns (i.e. establish different columns for your @ replies, specific search terms, and more)
• TweetDeck stores all tweets, so you can see tweets that happened overnight
• TweetDeck sits on your desktop and can be easily resized to take up part or the whole screen
• Twitterific
• Supports Mac OSX, iPhone, and iPod Touch
• $14.95. Buy it on the iTunes store.
• Features:
• Supports multiple Twitter accounts
• Auto refreshing at user defined intervals
• Replies and direct messages are displayed inline
• Number of unread tweets shown in the Dock
• Delete tweets from Twitter quickly and easily
• Auto show / hide when new tweets arrive
• Control over window layering and priority
• Single click access to user profile pages
• Switch between friend and public tweets easily
• Keyboard shortcuts for list navigation and more
• Control Twitterrific with AppleScript
• Audio notification for new tweets
• Hotkey to show / hide tweets
• Plugging Twitter into your Favorite Social Networks
• Many of the above solutions include automatic updating of your favorite social networks with your tweets.  You can also do it directly through Twitter by going here.
  

Using Twitter from a Mobile Phone

• There are three basic ways to interact with Twitter from a mobile phone.  The best option for you depends on what type of phone you have and how often you use Twitter.
  
• 3rd party software application: The most feature-rich option for power Twitter users with an iPhone or other supported smartphone and a data plan.
  
• WAP (mobile web): Quick and easy option, if you don't Twitter often and/or there isn't a good 3rd party application available for your phone.
  
• Text (SMS): A great option if you've got a very basic "old school" mobile phone, don't have a data plan (but do have a SMS plan or don't mind SMS charges), and/or if you want to reply to a message quickly, without launching your mobile browser.
• To get started using Twitter with a mobile, you'll need to add your mobile number to your Twitter account by logging into your Twitter account and going to http://twitter.com/devices.  The following page will help you with the complete mobile set-up process.

• 3rd Party Mobile Apps
• There are more 3rd party Twitter apps than you can shake a stick at.  Pick one based on your mobile operating system. 
  
• Some of the best mobile Twitter apps I've seen are available for iPhone via the iTunes App Store including:
• Twittelator Pro. This version has a TON of features.
• Twitterific
• Supports Mac OSX, iPhone, and iPod Touch
• $14.95. Buy it on the iTunes store.
• If you've got a Blackberry, Windows Mobile or Symbian smartphone, Android or other smartphone, check out your favorite smartphone store to see what's available or do a Google search. There are a ton of options.
• ShoZu (one of my clients), also supports posting to Twitter.  ShoZu supports multipe OSes and is pre-loaded on many Motorola phones. It is a social media gateway that allows you to push content to/from over 50 social networks from your mobile phone.
  
• Mobile Web
• Twitter has a WAP site (m.twitter.com), but it has very limited functionality.  You can't easily do @replies, favorite tweets
  
• I prefer using Dabr, which offers a more feature-rich WAP experience for Twitter. It suports @replies, favoriting, and more.
• Other WAP options for Twitter include:
• Slandr
• Twitstat
• Tweete
  
• Text Messaging/ SMS
• Once you've added your phone to Twitter, just send the verification code in a text message to the Twitter phone number assigned to you in your settings page.  Once your phone is verified, send Twitter a text message and we'll post it to your profile page and send it to your followers. (Find out more cool things you can do with your phone here!)
• Note: Twitter doesn't charge you to use SMS, but your operator/carrier will charge you for each SMS you send (and, in some countries, for the SMSs you receive). So, you may want to consider an SMS plan before enabling SMS for Twitter.
• Twitter has 2 SMS short codes and three long codes (for international users):
• In the US, use 40404.
  
• In Canada, use 21212.
• In Sweden, use: +46 737 494222
• In Germany, use +49 17 6888 50505
  
• Anywhere else, use +44 7624 801423
• A list of the commands you can use when you interact with Twitter via SMS can be found on Twitter's SMS help page.  The basics are:
• @username + message
  
• D username + message
  
• WHOIS username
  
• GET username
  
• NUDGE username
  
• FAV username
  
• STATS
• INVITE phone number
  

I'd love to hear your thoughts/additions. Tweet away!  Here's my Twitter profile. 

Here are a handful of my predictions for mobile and social media in 2009, moving into 2010… For the record, I’ve left off everything I know will happen in 2009 and limited this list to things I *think* will happen:

• Smartphones and feature phones will continue to converge in iPhone-esque fashion.  
• Mobile Internet will drive usage of smartphones, and with it, more robust experiments with mobile advertising and payments will begin.  
• Mobile advertising and payments will gain some momentum in 2009 but won’t really take off until 2010 and beyond.
• A few thoughts on Android:
• Android will struggle to gain momentum until there is infrastructure to distribute paid apps and an iTunes-esque web or client-based interface for PC & Mac.  
• Ultimately, Android will do well, but it’s going to take longer than many anticipate.
• Mobile and web convergence will continue heating up…
• Mobile back up and “kill pill” services will gain increased momentum, as those who convert to ‘smarter’ phones start storing more important data on their mobile (i.e. contacts, calendar, email, etc.).  Mobile Me, Dashwire and other services will continue to improve, and new players will enter the market, making it easier for users to access data on their phone from the web and reducing the pain associated with a lost or stolen phone.
• Mobile will become more social.  ShoZu, Xumii, Pixelpipe, PixSense, and others social media gateways are already making a play in this market.  But, in 2009, web-based players (ala FriendFeed) will experiment with mobile.  And, we’ll see acquisitions and consolidation in this space.
• Towards the end of the year or early 2010, I think we’ll start seeing converged development platforms that allow developers to create both web and mobile apps/widgets in fewer steps.  In late 2009-2010, mobile OS providers and OEMs will start looking beyond SMS, MMS, and email and incorporate social messaging tools like Twitter and maybe FriendFeed into basic functionality of phones.  And, mobile address books should become more social, allowing you to input your friends’ social networking details into your address book and interact with them via your chosen medium in 1-2 clicks.
• Both web and mobile development platforms will continue to duke it out for developer attention.  Developers will choose the platforms that provide the easiest-to-use, most robust tools and monetization and distribution options.
• I’m hoping Microsoft pulls a rabbit out of a hat… Perhaps, they will finally make computers chewy like cake, but more likely Windows 7 and the next generation of Windows Mobile (which I bet will be called "Windows Mobile 7") will play better together than previous mobile and PC OSes.
• I don't want to predict a rampant mobile virus, but I think it could happen easily, as mobile-web convergence accelerates: A mobile virus has a high probability of emerging in 2009 (though, I won't go as far to say that one will emerge), targetting PIM data (contacts, calendar, etc.).  This type of virus would negatively impact both mobile owners and anyone with an email or mobile number listed on an infected mobile phone. A virus like this would be particularly nasty because it could simultaneously spread through Internet enabled mobile apps, SMS/MMS, and email. So, even if it stopped spreading through mobile apps, it could continue to spread through email and SMS/MMS. The most likely phones that would be impacted are smartphones on open development platforms like Android that give 3rd party developers access to PIM data but don’t closely regulate free app content or distribution.  The likelihood of this happening will decrease if open mobile OS providers (like Google) implement better checks and balances for apps, though doing so may slow innovation in the 3rd party app space.  The other group of users that could be impacted by a mobile virus are those who back-up their PIM data to an un-proven “server in the sky” provider that gets hacked.
• The mobile app store war will heat up… The success of the iTunes app store has blown other smartphone stores out of the water, and bolstered sales of the iPhone. Microsoft, RIM and others will attempt to join or leapfrog the competition.
• Social media and mobile measurement, monitoring, and monetization tools like Radian6, Bango, Mobclix and others (all of which solve pieces of this puzzle) will improve, converge, and become more robust widely used and accessible. 
  
• Social media and mobile marketing will gain validity as measurement tools improve.
  
• More big brands will embrace mobile and social campaigns rather than running away from them.
• Marketers will be able to target content more appropriately to users based on behavior, location, and handset.
• Developers will be able to more effectively understand consumer behavior and increase app traction.
  
• There will be increased consolidation in the social media aggregation space.  Smaller social networks will die or be acquired into larger networks.  Aggregation sites like FriendFeed will become more popular. Turf wars will escalate with larger social networks taking increased action against smaller aggregation networks that violate terms of their API licenses and encroach on their turf (Facebook's lawsuit against Power.com and action against Google Friend connect were just the start).
  
• Facebook will continue to grow in popularity and eventually find a way to properly monetize its 150,000,000 + users.
  
• Twitter will make a big move in 2009.  Someone smart will acquire Twitter (if the offer is good enough) or Twitter will acquire more of the best companies in its developer community and build out a more robust platform with increased consumer appeal.  Twitter will (hopefully) begin to monetize in 2009.
  
• While “Virtual Gifts” will continue to grow in popularity, “Real Gifts” (like Givereal.com) will gain increased momentum in 2009 and really take off in 2010.  Online retailers will make their real products (books, clothes, etc.) easily giftable via social networks.  You’ll be able to send gifts to your friends/acquaintances without knowing their real address.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these predictions.  If you're not a vox member, please email your comments to me, and I'll re-post. 

Want to Twitter this post? Here's the tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/7wvyw9
Want to follow me on Twitter?: www.twitter.com/lisawhelan.

If you're a fan of ShoZu, in addition to keeping up with the ShoZu blog, you can now follow ShoZu on Twitter (when Twitter is working!).  I'm sending out regular updates for ShoZu at: www.twitter.com/shozu.  Be one of the first to find out when new destinations are added, how famous people are using ShoZu, what new features are available, and more.

Last night, I went to the San Francisco chapter Social Media Club event featuring the authors of Now Is Gone, Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis.  It was a great event - pizza, beer, interesting conversation... What more could a fan of social media ask for?

A couple of topics of conversations sparked my interest...

For starters, Brian and Geoff talked about the important role blogging plays in getting people involved in social media.  The general feeling among the group is that blogs are the first port of call for those who become interested in social media.  I agree blogs fuel the online social ecosystem, but are they really the main "gateway drug" for other forms of social media?  I'm curious to know whether this is the case or whether it's the perception of early social media adopters.  I certainly got started by blogging/ reading blogs, but I wonder - Will the next generation of social media fans get their start with blogs or through participation in online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter?

Speaking of Twitter - the other thing that I found interesting is how many people are obsessed Twittering.  I've not been a big Twitterer, but I'm going to give it more of a try (lisawhelan is my handle if anyone wants to follow).

Everyone I met last night was really looking forward to the Web 2.0 Expo in SF this week... It should be a great show.  I'll be there, so if you see me at the Expo, say hello.

Jen Grenz, who leads marketing for one of my clients, ShoZu, recently showed ShoZu's re-vamped mobile application to the BBC.  Check out the video. 

ShoZu 4.0, is much more robust than previous versions.  It allows you to update your status on various social networking sites from your phone, reply to comments (and read friend's comments) from your phone, and download your friends's Flickr feeds to your phone.  And, it's easier to use than the last version, which itself is simple (and I'm not just saying that because they're one of my clients).  It makes social networking from your phone simple and it aggregates social networking interactions so that you don't have to jump from WAP site to WAP site or from on mobile application to the next. The newest version of the ShoZu app is even better from a useability perspective. 

In this major new release, ShoZu started showing ads.  While ads normally annoy me, the ads ShoZu shows are (so far anyway) good.  Unlike ads on websites, I'm seeing ads from a small number of companies that are the type of companies people like me want to learn about... companies that have products/services that actually appeal to advanced mobile users and mobile social networkers. 

From a useability perspective, what's interesting and unique about the way ShoZu displays ads is that those ads are kept entirely within the ShoZu experience.  So, when you click on a banner ad, it doesn't take you to a WAP site, it takes you to a splash page within the ShoZu application that gives you more information.  And, it's much easier to navigate away from the splash screen on Shozu than it is to interact with some other mobile ad types like WAP.  With WAP ads, you're navigated away from the task you're participating in and loading is slow.  ShoZu's ads are lightning fast and can be opened and closed in fractions of seconds.

You can download the new version of ShoZu by clicking here. 

Last year, I wrote a post with predictions for mobile in 2007 and beyond, using inCode's  "Top 10 Global Wireless Predictions for 2007" as a starting point.  We're almost 2 months into 2008, and it's the perfect time to re-visit those predictions to see what came true, and make a few more predictions for 2008 and beyond.

Topping both InCode's and my own predictions for 2007 was the mobilization of social networks.  To date, while social networks aren't nearly as mobile as I'd like, they're taking big strides and moving in the right direction.  In October 2007, Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder of Facebook) spoke at CTIA in San Francisco on the importance of mobilizing social applications and announced Facebook's first mobile application (for RIM).  And, in one of the most exciting things to happen since I started blogging, Dustin Moskovitz read my post expressing disappointment about Facebook's mobile announcement and solicited my input on how to improve Facebook's mobile strategy and WAP site.

In other exciting mobile social networking news in 2007, ShoZu (one of my consulting clients), who makes it easy for users to interact with their favorite social networking sites from their phone, was nominated for a TechCrunch Crunchies Award.  And, in early 2008, ShoZu announced that ShoZu will ship on 50 Million Mobile phones in 2008, the number of users downloading the app from non-pre-installed phones is doubling quarterly, and 100,000 users are registering for ShoZu every month!  With stats like that, it's clear that mobile OEMs and Operators are buying into the mobile social networking proposition, and users are embracing mobile social networking in droves.  Mobile social networking on the whole will continue to increase in popularity in 2008, and mobile accessibility will improve dramatically, as mobile browsers and social media apps get better. 

inCode also predicted that in 2007, "Multi-Function Devices [will] Become Cheaper and More Versatile" - including the introduction of video-capable, GPS-enabled, and LBS-capable devices to the masses.  Video-capable devices are definitely here to stay.  GPS-enabled devices haven't saturated the market, but LBS is taking off.  Google Maps recently incorporated LBS via network triangulation, and while triangulation isn't nearly as accurate as GPS, it's still very useful.  It's great to see carriers like AT&T opening up triangulation to allow mobile internet technologies to leverage LBS.

A year ago, I predicted that in 2008, "large mobile operators and OEMs will begin to pre-load devices with social networking-focused applications that incorporate GPS."  It seems that mobile operators are moving in the right direction, based on several new product announcements at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona earlier this month.  OEMs like Nokia and Sony Eriksson are jumping on the GPS bandwagon in 2008 with innovative handsets with built-in GPS and designs that rival the iPhone.  Once GPS technology is more readily available on slimmer handsets, the influx of GPS-enabled social applications will come.  By 2009, interacting with friends from your mobile phone and locating people near you so that you can interact with them in real life will get easier thanks to new GPS enabled handsets and apps.

Last year, I also predicted: "collaborative and community-based entertainment like YouTube on the go will evolve and continue to be popular.  I also expect that sites that monetize video footage (of, say, news events) that users take on their mobile phones will become increasingly popular....Think sites like: ScoopLive.com, Scoopt.com, and SpyMedia.com."  So far, I've been right on YouTube, but monetization from video is still a long way off.  Check out the lack of traffic on the above sites according to Alexa!:

Given the current economic downturn in the US, I don't suspect we'll see much movement in the paid-for citizen journalism space until 2009.  And, by that point, there will probably be a whole new set of competitors.  More likely,  I suspect we'll see Video AdSense from Google (just released from beta) and similar video ad platforms make their way towards mobile and start picking up momentum towards the end of the year and into 2009 as mobile advertising revs up.

With an increased amount of mobile content becoming available and more ISVs and websites trying to monetize their mobile efforts through advertising, the discoverability of mobile content needs to improve.  So, I'm sticking with my original prediction from 2007 that later in 2008, mobile search and mobile SEO will gain momentum.  Mobile ads will gain some momentum later this year but won't likely take off until 2009.  By that point, there will be a need to track the effectiveness of mobile ads, and by 2009, I suspect we'll see an increase number of mobile analytics vendors like Bango and Mobilytics emerge.  From there, it's only a matter of time before the heavy hitters in website optimization and testing incorporate mobile website testing and optimization tools into their product suites.

It's an exciting time to be in both mobile and web 2.0, and 2008 and 2009 will be exciting years for both industries as convergence moves further away from a dream and towards a reality.

Today is an exciting day for my client, ShoZu, who closed $12 Million in Series C funding in a round led by SEB Venture Capital in London. ShoZu makes uploading/downloading content to/from your favorite social networking sites very easy, and usership is growing rapidly amont those downloading the app from their mobile browsers (m.shozu.com). Plus, ShoZu is being pre-loaded on over 50 million mobile phones in 2008!  Here's a copy of the release:

ShoZu Raises $12 Million in Series C Funding;

Round Led by New Investor SEB Venture Capital, London

Mobile Social Media Company Now Attracting Over 100,000 New Users Monthly  

LONDON – January 28, 2008 – ShoZu Inc., the leading provider of mobile social media services for exchanging content between mobile phones and Web-based social media sites, today announced the closing of a $12 million Series C round of financing led by new investor SEB Venture Capital, London, the UK-based venture capital arm of Swedish financial services firm Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken.  Previous investors Atlas Venture, Crescendo Ventures and TTP Ventures also participated.   

The new cash commitment reflects ShoZu’s growing market traction in the highly competitive mobile social media sector.  The ShoZu application will ship pre-installed on more than 50 million mobile phones in 2008.  In addition, the number of users downloading the ShoZu client to non-preloaded handsets is more than doubling every quarter, with more than 100,000 users currently registering every month.   

“ShoZu is the only mobile social media company that has secured global pre-installation agreements with multiple handset manufacturers.  That fact alone positions the firm for substantial growth,” said Frank Kelcz, an investment manager with SEB Venture Capital’s London office who has joined ShoZu’s board of directors.  “Demand for Mobile-to-Web enabling technology is being driven by a variety of factors, including the need to stay connected with online social media like Flickr and Facebook on the go, and ShoZu has the opportunity as well as the initial market presence to dominate the space.”    

“The industry is still grappling with solving the usability problems of the mobile Web, from navigation to dropped connections,” said ShoZu CEO Mark Bole. “ShoZu is addressing many of these challenges with its approach to simplifying the user experience, exchanging content in the background, and providing an open gateway that offers a shortcut to key destinations.  Strategies like these may be the answer to mobilising social media in the short term and also help define the shape of the mobile Internet moving forward.”   

Over the past year, ShoZu logged a series of successes in establishing its service as the industry standard in mobile social media connectivity.  Achievements in 2007 included securing global pre-installation agreements with Motorola and Samsung, creating the first unlimited-use ShoZu access package through a carrier partnership, expanding its Web 2.0 partner ecosystem to a market-leading 30 sites, and introducing the market’s first two-way multimedia social media capability with a service that will send friends’ latest Flickr photos directly to the handset on request. 

Also in 2007, the company added to its collection of major industry awards with the top 3GSM award for Most Innovative Mobile Application, a 2007 MEFFY Award from the Mobile Entertainment Forum for best handset application, and a 2007 Ultimate Innovator Award from the Interactive Advertising Bureau for its mobile advertising platform. 

These developments coincide with growing consumer demand for mobile connectivity to social networks and other online communities.  A recent Juniper Research report predicted that the number of users accessing social networking sites by mobile will skyrocket from 14 million in 2007 to nearly 600 million by 2012, helping to push mobile operator revenues from user-generated content from $576 million to $5.74 billion.   

ShoZu’s Share-It service enables mobile users to maintain contact with their Web-based social networks, personal blogs, photo/video sharing sites and other social media with a few clicks.  Users can publish photos and video clips up to 10 minutes in length from their phones to favorite Web 2.0 sites without complex navigation, transmit photos at full or blog-quality resolution, exchange comments with friends, and sign up to receive friends’ photos and other multimedia files on their handsets automatically with no manual intervention.  These and other capabilities are unique to ShoZu.  

The ShoZu application is currently available on 317 handset models with users in over 100 countries.  

About ShoZu

ShoZu is the leading provider of mobile social media services that connect mobile consumers with their online social networks, personal blogs, photo storage sites and other Web 2.0 properties from the handset.  The company’s patented technology provides fast, easy, one-click uploads of photos and video clips from the mobile to the Web, full-resolution photo and video delivery without compression, an emerging suite of services that push content to the phone, the ability to work in the background even if a connection is dropped, and other unique features that simplify and enhance the user experience, plus a mobile advertising service that provides non-intrusive and behaviorally targeted ad delivery.  The company was founded in 2000 and has formed partnerships with some of the leading players in the mobile ecosystem, including Motorola and Samsung.  For more information, visit www.ShoZu.com/AboutUs. 

About SEB Venture Capital 
SEB VC is the venture capital arm of SEB, a leading Nordic financial institution. SEB VC has 280 M€ under management in an evergreen fund structure, focusing on early stage and expansion investments in life science, media and technology, and industrial growth. The firm’s 22 seasoned professionals have made more than 70 investments and 34 exits since the fund’s inception in 1995. Offices are located in Stockholm, London, Vilnius, Gothenburg and Malmö. 

My client, ShoZu, has been nominated in the Crunchies Award as Best Mobile Start-up.  

This award is co-produced by TechCrunch, Read/Write Web, VentureBeat and GigaOm.  Major sponsors include: Adobe, Microsoft, Sun and a few venture funds.

Please head to the voting link, http://vote.crunchies.techcrunch.com/ scroll to the mobile category and vote for ShoZu.  You can vote once and day, so please take the time to vote as many times as you can!

Voting ends January 10. The awards will be announced January 18.

In addition to consulting for SocialMedia Networks and Covered Communications, I now consult for ShoZu Inc., the leading provider of mobile social media services that connect mobile consumers with their online social networks, personal blogs, photo storage sites and other Web 2.0 properties from their mobile phone. 

ShoZu allows users to engage with social media from their mobile phone, making it easy for them to keep in constant contact with preferred social networking services from the handset.  ShoZu is a light weight, mobile application that allows users to publish photos, videos, comments, status updates, blog postings and more to their favorite online sites …in one click or less. With it, you can:

• Publish to multiple sites with one click (pictures, video, metadata, geotags, etc.)
  
• Subscribe to content feeds
  
• Blog
• Make new friends
• Discover new communities
• See what friends are up to
  

ShoZu already works with most of SixApart blogging solutions, including Vox, TypePad, and Live Journal.  (My colleague "Jambo" at ShoZu is a fellow Voxer, and you can check out ShoZu's blog here). 

ShoZu also works with Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, WordPress, BBC, Kodak Easy Share, and a ton of others (click here for the full list).  And, the app is pre-loaded onto a ton of mobile phones.  ShoZu just released a new version ShoZu 3.3, which is available for download from your mobile browser or by clicking here to go to the self-provisioning website.

I'm working ShoZu to bring more social networking properties on board.  If you're a social networking site that would like to integrate with ShoZu, please email me.